‘Literary Caregiving’: Women, books and the First World War
Author: Sara Haslam
Since 2015, I’ve been working on the story of Helen Mary Gaskell’s War Library. This prime example of what I call ‘literary caregiving’ was begun in London in the same month war was declared in order to help wounded soldiers. Gaskell’s vision was of a library stocked with donated books, communicating care from those in the UK who sent books at the same time as delivering, by literary means, distraction, entertainment, information, comfort, and relaxation for traumatised bodies and minds.
The War Library was incredibly successful from the outset. It affiliated with the Red Cross in 1915, which helped raise its profile as well as meaning it could operate more successfully. Until that point, May Gaskell, as she was known, funded the library along with her brother, Beresford Melville, and a few wealthy and influential friends, including some politicians. Lady Battersea offered her Marble Arch mansion, then standing empty, to house the donated books. Viscount Samuel, the Postmaster General, wrote later of his pleasure at heading the department responsible for administering the War Library’s national collections and international deliveries. Affiliation with the Red Cross opened the way to accessing better funding for the project, and The Times newspaper was particularly friendly to the library, carrying many advertisements and letters to spread the word. I tell the story of this library in an article forthcoming in the Journal of Medical History.
I came across Digital Drama’s projects on Endell Street Military Hospital online during my research. Endell Street also had a library, and I was interested in the links between these two war-time book-related ventures. I dropped an enquiry to Digital Drama’s contact address, and was amazed on Alison Ramsey’s reply to learn that she also works part-time at the Open University in London. She invited me to the immersive drama the company produced about Endell Street (which was a huge treat to see), and introduced me to Dr Jennian Geddes. Jennian’s article on Endell Street, ‘Deeds and Words in the Suffrage Military Hospital in Endell Street’, published in Medical History (2007), is a must-read for anyone working this field.
Endell Street’s library was run by two prominent members of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League, founded in 1908 by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton. The aim of the WWSL was to obtain the franchise on the same terms as men, and it sought to do this through use of the pen. Elizabeth Robins, an American actress and writer, was one of the first members of the WWSL, and its first president. The British novelist Beatrice Harraden was another of the organisation’s first members and she served as librarian at Endell Street from 1915 until it closed, joined by Elizabeth Robins for the first year or so. The philosophy of this library, like Gaskell’s, was a reader-led one. In other words, these women made an operational decision to cater for the readers’ requests when it came to their reading matter, rather than to impose their idea of what might be termed ‘improving’ reading upon them. The wounded men’s fears of having their lack of education exposed, or of being made fun of for their tastes in more popular literature, for example, were eased in this way. The librarians’ seat at their bedside became an opportunity to enjoy conversation and experience care based on books and reading.
Books were part of the men’s cure, therefore, and their availability was part of what I see as care ‘in the round’ at this hospital. It is a pleasure to be working on this story as a literature specialist, experiencing during my research my own belief in the positive power of books becoming increasingly evidenced in this way. I’m writing up the results now in a co-authored piece on war-time bibliotherapy with my colleague Edmund King.
Digital Drama’s inspiring productions have proved to be a highlight of my research across this past year. Thanks to all involved!
Sara Haslam
Dept of English & Creative Writing
The Open University
www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/100-years-votes-some-women